Holograms May Reduce the Need for Cadavers in Medical School

Being able to view, study, and manipulate human anatomy is crucial to medical school training. Microsoft’s HoloLens technology hopes to reduce medical universities’ reliance on cadavers by supplying students with the means to digitally examine and interact with 3D representations of our anatomical parts in augmented reality.

A team of researchers at Case Western Reserve University are leading the charge in adopting this technology in the classroom. Satyam Ghodasara, a medical student at Case Western Reserve in 2015, described an “aha” moment he had using the HoloLens system when he was able to visualize “the aortic valve in its entirety — unobstructed by other elements of the cardiac system and undamaged by earlier dissection efforts.”